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“Deku, you know you have to at least try, right?” said one Ochako Uraraka, as she tried—and failed, to hide her giggling at Izuku’s current predicament. If Izuku moved his arms away from his face and looked at her, he might’ve noticed the extra pink in her cheeks, signaling that she wasn’t so composed either.
“I-I am trying, r-really I am!” Izuku stammered.
But therein lies the problem. Looking at her.
Izuku Midoriya was not having the best of days.
First, he found out he’s out of his favorite cereal when he wanted some breakfast, so that put a damper on things. Then, he spilled his orange juice on himself after Mineta bumped into him whilst running away from an irate Jiro. Of course, Kacchan saw the whole thing, and Izuku still wasn’t sure he had all his hearing back after withstanding his boisterous laughter.
His misfortune notwithstanding, it was a slow afternoon in the Heights Alliance dorm. With homework and training done for the day, most of 1A could be found in various positions in the common area, the crescendo of their voices overlapping and intermingling as they caught each other up on their day.
Sato was at his usual spot in the kitchen, deep in concentration over his latest creation. Ojiro was deep in a conversation with Kirishima, who was doing push-ups in front of the TV having nothing else to do. Kacchan meanwhile was trying to watch said TV.
An ever-vigilant Iida sat very still on a fold-out chair reading a book with one hand, whilst seemingly keeping an eye on everyone else, too. Jiro was pretending not to listen to Kaminari over on the couch in the corner as he suggested various activities they could do.
Izuku himself was on the floor with Uraraka, sitting so close that the slightest movement would invariably have them brush up against each other. As they animatedly discussed a new anime Ochako had introduced him to, Izuku could all but forget how annoying his day had been.
She’d always had that effect on him.
With huge smiles and gentle blushes on their faces, they were simply enjoying each other’s company. So engrossed in the conversation, Izuku hadn’t even realized that he was leaning further and further into Ochako, his head turned to face her, staring right at her adorable face. ‘Oh god, I hope I didn’t say that aloud.’ He thought to himself as he realized where his thoughts were leading. The blush on his face grew stronger still, and he might even have said something-- were it not for Kaminari uttering the words which would lead to his doom. “Hey, how about we play a couple of rounds of Truth or Dare?”
That had caught their attention, jolting Izuku and Ochako out of their conversation. “Truth or Dare? Oh, that sounds kinda fun!” said Ochako.
“Of course, it does! I suggested it after all!” Kaminari exclaimed, proud of his suggestion.
“That’s more of a reason to not do it.”
“Jirou!”
“What’s this about Truth or Dare? I want in, too! Should I get the rest of the guys?” Before the two could get one of their arguments going again, they were interrupted by Ashido, who’s mention of the activity drew more and more attention. Although not everyone decided to participate, before he knew it, Izuku was being brought into a game of Truth or Dare.
“Yeah, let’s do it. I’m sure it’ll be fun! What could go wrong?” he said optimistically.
As Izuku would later learn, things could go very wrong.
Things started well enough. They’d rearranged the furniture a bit so they could all sit down in front of the TV, and one perfectly-balanced bottle, courtesy of Momo, later, the game had begun.
The participants of said game were Iida, Sero, Kirishima, Mineta, Kaminari, Aoyama, Ashido, Momo, Jiro, Tsuyu, Ochako, and Izuku. Most people picked dare, although Izuku really shouldn’t be surprised; they were all Heroes-in-training, after all. Iida was up first, and Sero dared him to do his crazy hand gestures every time someone spoke for the rest of the game. Once they had explained and convinced Iida that he did indeed make several rapid hand gestures often whilst speaking (which took a surprisingly long time), he was off; making right angles and all sorts of other movements whenever someone spoke, which was a lot, considering how many of them were participating.
While Mineta’s first dare was preemptively shut down unanimously as it was no doubt perverted in some way (something he did not deny), the whole group couldn’t help but cheer when Sero accepted Mineta’s next dare of being stuck to the ceiling with his balls for the rest of the game—he could reach stuff with his tape anyway. Ochako was dared by Iida to use her Quirk to float as long as she could without puking. A “way to get some extra training in whilst having enjoyment at the same time!” Or at least, Iida said so. They made sure to tie her to the chair with some string so she didn’t float off, and Iida was adamant she come down as soon as she reached her pre-puke limit. Izuku had to admit it was pretty funny seeing her floating right by his head like that while everyone else was sitting down.
“We’ll see how funny you find it when I ask you to do something similar Deku.” Ochako teased. Ah. He said that out loud.
“O-oh s-sure! I’m up for anything!” Izuku chuckled nervously. Why was he sweating all of a sudden?
Izuku watched with bated breath as he waited for his turn to come, both excited and terrified. He’d already decided on only going for Dares, because what if he chose Truth and someone asked about his Quirk? He was brought out of his thoughts when he saw that the bottle had finally landed on him, and the person who’d be deciding Izuku’s dare was… Aoyama.
Izuku let out a sigh of relief, Aoyama and he were good friends now; surely, he wasn’t going to ask something crazy of him.
“Eh bien Midoriya, Vérité ou Oser?” said Aoyama… in French. (Iida makes wild hand gestures)
“Uhh Aoyama I love that you’re bilingual and all, but uh, I don’t. Speak. French.” Izuku deadpanned. (Iida makes wild hand gestures)
“Dude, I get that you’re French or whatever, but why are you only speaking French today!? You haven’t even been dared yet!” Kaminari groaned, having dealt with Aoyama’s latest eccentricity already today. (Iida continues to make wild hand gestures)
“Hang on, let me use the translator app again ribbit… He’s just saying, ‘Truth or Dare,’ Midoriya.” (Iida once again makes wild hand gestures)
“Well why couldn’t he just say that!?” groaned, Izuku. (Iida repeatedly makes wild hand gestures)
“Je n'ai osé parler en français que par Tetsutetsu de la classe 1B.” he replied. (Iida makes wild hand gestures)
The rest of them just turned to Tsuyu at this point. “He says Tetsutetsu dared him to only speak in French the rest of the day.” (Iida enunciates via hand gestures)
“Aoyama! Have you been cheating on us with another class’s Truth or Dare game? That’s cold, man,” Sero’s indignantly responded from the ceiling. (Iida makes accusatory hand gestures)
“Je peux difficilement les blâmer de vouloir que je fasse briller leur vie. De plus, ils en avaient besoin d'un de plus et j'étais tout près.” (Iida makes French hand gestures)
“… Tsuyu did you get all that?” asked Kirishima. (Iida makes questionary hand gestures)
“I think so… He said they needed one more for their game, and he just happened to there. Also, something about twinkling, I think. Ribbit.” (Iida makes exasperated hand gestures)
“Umm, I- I pick Dare, Aoyama.” Said Izuku, trying to get things back on track.
“Est-ce bien le cas ? Eh bien, je sais ce qu'il faut oser. Je vous défie de fixer les yeux d'Ochako pendant au moins une minute.” (Iida makes French hand gestures)
Izuku had a bad feeling about this. “Uhh Tsuyu, why did he say Ochako’s name?” (Iida makes suspenseful hand gestures)
“He said… He dares you to stare into Ochako’s eyes for a minute at least.” (Iida freezes mid-hand gesture)
“EHH??” came Ochako’s response.
“You heard me, ribbit.”
“…I’m gonna need to sit down for this.” Ochako said.
“I- I- I- I couldn’t possibly do that! I can’t make Uraraka uncomfortable like that!” said Izuku. “Y-you should just ask another Dare, Aoyama—“
“Well,” started Ochako, not meeting Izuku’s eyes while speaking, “I wouldn’t mind so much, Deku. We’re best friends, after all; we look at each other all the time! W-wait, that sounds creepier than I meant it—“
“Hmmm, you guys do stare at each other a lot when you think no one’s looking,” said Kirishima, a hand on his chin as he seemingly thought of all the times, he’d witnessed such a thing.
“N- no we don’t.” stammered Ochako as she tried to backtrack, her blush growing rapidly all the while.
“Yeah! We don’t!” He tried backing her up. Sure, Izuku’s been caught staring at her a couple of times, (Never by her, thank god) but that doesn’t count!
“Suuuuure, buddy.” Said Kaminari.
Izuku could only think, ‘I should’ve just picked Truth and told them about One for All.’
And thus, Izuku Midoriya found himself in his current predicament: sitting on a chair opposite his best friend, so close that their legs were touching, with their friends around them. Tsuyu had the stopwatch app open on her phone to time it properly, and truth be told it would have long been over by now—If Izuku could look Ochako in the eye for more than a second or two.
“Deku, you know you have to at least try, right?” said one Ochako Uraraka, as she tried—and failed, to hide her giggling at Izuku’s current predicament. If Izuku moved his arms away from his face and looked at her, he might’ve noticed the extra pink in her cheeks, signaling that she wasn’t so composed either.
“I-I am trying, r-really I am!” Izuku stammered.
He was! Izuku lost count of how many times he’d tried looking right at her—It’s not like he has never looked her in the eyes before!—But it was just so embarrassing! There’re so many people around and she’s right there and oh god what if he says something stupid or she gets creeped out—
“First of all, nothing you do could ever creep me out, Deku. Second, it’s just a Dare for fun. If… if it’s really making you that uncomfortable, we don’t have to, okay?” Ochako had managed to cut through the swirl of his thoughts and bring him back to the situation at hand, sounding almost disappointed.
Did she think he was avoiding it because of her?
He couldn’t let her think that.
“No. It’s okay, Uraraka, but thanks for looking out for me. Like you always do.” He tried to assure her with a smile that was far more confident than he felt. “Tsuyu, start the timer.”
“You got it, ribbit.”
Izuku did his best to block out everything--their friends, where they were, the situation-- and just…looked at her.
He finally met her gaze properly, and Uraraka took his breath away all over again. Her eyes the color of amber that could outshine the Sun, hair of the same color that framed her adorably rounded face with the ever-present rosy blushes that seemed stronger than usual. She wasn’t shying away this time either; she looked right back at Izuku with those mesmerizing eyes of hers, a content smile on her face. She was so close he could see every detail, every blemish on her skin, the way a couple of strands of her hair were out of place and covering her left eye, he had to fight the urge to reach out and tuck them back…
Why had this been so difficult again?
Uraraka was everything to him. His best friend, his best teammate in the field… his crush. They’d gotten so much closer recently, and yet he still wanted more, but was too afraid to give voice to that desire.
So instead, he just smiled and stared at his best friend while he could.
Izuku wondered if it had been a minute yet.
“Hey guys, I get that you’re like, in the zone right now or whatever, but it’s been 5 minutes. Are we gonna continue the game or what? I’d like to get down from here at some point.” Sero’s voice rang out from above.
And with that, the veil Izuku had put around himself and Uraraka came crashing down, reminding him that they were surrounded.
Did he just say 5 minutes!?
“Sero! You ruined it!” moaned Ashido.
“Well, you try being stuck to Mineta’s balls for this long! I got stuff to do later, Ashido!”
“Yamomo, did you at least get the pictures like I asked?”
“You asked her to take pictures?”
“Of course, I did, this is gold right here!”
Their friends were so engrossed in bickering over how it was ‘ruined,’ they completely forgot about Izuku and Uraraka. Both were wearing matching grins and blushes, but they didn’t mind. It may have been hard to get started, but in the end, neither of them could look away.
‘This day turned out pretty good after all,’ Izuku thought to himself.